Priceless

I’m referring to my kids play these days… they are priceless. Yesterday night while I and DH were watching a movie, my kids were very busy playing. Both were riding their tricycle and my younger one was holding a doll in his arms. My elder one was instructing her little brother on every chore. I was curious and wanted to know what they are doing taking multiple trips to their toy room and to the master bedroom in their tricycle. I tiptoed to their toy room and found that they are pretending to be me (a mother). My daughter was making breakfast, giving bath, feeding the doll while my son was helping her out. Then they sat on their tricycle; pedaled all the way to the master bedroom and dropped the doll off to her school. You see the master bedroom had turned into school for the doll. Later picked the doll from the school, gave her a bath, fed her and made her sleep. This continued for more than two hours. It was truly a moment of priceless for us.

Healthy Food Habits

There is no arguing that good nutrition, balanced diet and reasonable amount of work out are the key ingredients to a fit and healthy lifestyle. Health consciousness is entrenched in us right from childhood days. My father owned a restaurant when I was growing up; he is now retired. Well the whole family and almost all my relatives are into food business owning numerous bistros and quite a few fine eateries across Karnataka.

You might be wondering if I grew up munching on poori, vada and all those south Indian delicacies. Wish my answer to that was a huge yes but that was not the case. My mother made home made breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner every single day except Sunday’s breakfast. Sunday was the only day in a week when my siblings and I were allowed to order anything we want from the restaurant. I always ordered poori and kurma. Some times we were allowed to order Pulav for lunch on Sundays’. As a child I hated my mother for not giving us the freedom to eat anything at the restaurant. I had the total access to the junk food but unfortunately my mother was guarding me. It’s a horrible feeling when you get to see the food, smell it and not get to eat it. My father sometime would bring sweets and some deep fry like pakodas when he returned home in the night. I guess he felt bad for us or may be mother told him to do. I remember my friends at the school thought I ate restaurant food everyday and of course I didn’t go to correct that perception .

Now as an adult and more importantly as a mother I understand the importance of home made food. It is our duty to impose good eating habits in our kids’ right from their birth. Eating healthy food is cultivated from the childhood days and as a parent we should follow that rule strictly no matter how busy we are and how hard it is. I try to follow my mother’s path but it’s very challenging. To this day she asks me on the phone what did I make for breakfast? If I say we had cereal, her next question will be “why didn’t you made dosa or idly?” Cereal is wholesome but not for her. She tasted it and felt it too sweet. She calls it a dessert than of a breakfast. She still enquires about what I fed my kids. I’m not complaining but I feel so lucky to be her daughter. Rooting proper healthy food habits in our kids will definitely impact their food choices later on in their life. Our kids hopefully will thank us just like the way I am to my mother every single day of my life.

Does food alone keeps one healthy? Well that’s a totally new topic to talk on. I believe complete health is not just achieved by eating right, exercising and sleeping properly. There is no arguing that healthy consumption of food is the most important factor but keeping our self emotionally and spiritually fit is also equally important. Some find health benefit praying, singing, meditation and being among friends. It is said that mingling with friends and spending few hours with them will help you flight cold, cough, boost your immunity and generate happy hormones in you. I also read somewhere that talking keeps our brain cells active. For all those shy talkers, I ask you to come out and start talking. It keeps you healthy ; what other reasons we need.

Elders were not kidding when they said “apple a day keeps the doctor away”. Food consumption matters a lot. Everything we eat and everything we drink has an influence to our body. One needs to make careful choices when it comes to our own body. I hope everyone makes better health choice for them and for their beloveds.

Special Days

Being born and brought up in India, I never knew there were unique days in a year to celebrate and commemorate mothers, fathers, and spouse (lovers). I guess it was never an Indian custom up until recent years where young generations of Indians are exposed to such tradition. Thanks to globalization and understanding of western culture, we all celebrate at least Valentines Day in India, the most popular of all special days.

There are special days for everything, from New Year’s Day on January 1st, to Valentine’s Day, boss day, labors day, children’s day, president’s day, earth day, moon day, St. Patrick's Day, Friendship day and ending the very long list of special days with New years Eve on 31st December night. As I explore more and more on the subject, I was astounded to learn that there are at least 5 special days for every month. Let’s take the month of June 2008 for instance. We have Donut day on June 1st, National gingerbread day on June 5th, Iced tea day on 10th, Father’s Day on 15th, and UFO Day on June 24th. I’m not complaining; I love the fact that there are so many reasons to celebrate our life. There is nothing wrong in celebrating every special day or is there?

Valentine's Day is a time to express love; flowers especially roses, heart shapes chocolates, jewelry, greeting cards and dinner at some posh restaurants are some items on the to-do list. But for business owners worldwide, Cupid's return is a lifesaver resulting in sales boost and profit. 80% of the population tends to buy gifts for their beloved on that day. Mother’s Day yield about $13.8 billion in sales proceed and profit in US alone. Sales on Father’s Day, President’s Day, and St. Patrick’s Day can make or break a whole year for some specialty retailers. All this makes me wonder if Special Days are nothing but gimmicks to get general population spend more money than they normally do. Are special days more of a business strategy than of a special celebration?

Business corporations spend millions of dollars advertising their products as an ideal gifts for Mother’s Day or Father’s day or Valentines day to name a few. These advertisement starts to pop up on all media source at least a month before special days. Reminding us to get out and buy gifts for our parents or spouse. They will also have a huge sale right after the special event. I saw a huge sale on valentine’s chocolates at my grocery store. Before Valentines Day the price was 7 dollars and now on sale for merely 2 dollars. Are we paying more for those chocolates in desperation to express our love on Valentines Day itself? Aren’t businesses being unfair raising the price before special days for all those guilt burdened fanatics and later reduce the price to the lowest to all those bargain/deal lovers ? Either way businesses are playing with us. These days’ special days are more of a publicity stunt than of a sheer joy.

Saying that, I want to go back to my question and say that there is nothing wrong in celebrating every special day. I celebrate Halloween Day; dressing up, buying chocolates, and trick or treating brings so much delight on my kids face. That’s the reason I celebrate it… to see them happy. I don’t go extra mile decorating my home with spooky theme, scary pumpkins every where, baking Halloween cookies, and throwing grand party. Celebration should be more of a personal elation than of a show off. If special days bring you that kind of happiness then one must celebrate it at all given opportunity. HAVE A NICE FATHER’S DAY and celebrate it in your own personal joy.

Mother Goddess

There is an adage in Hindu religion which goes as

“MatrudEvObhava; PitrudEvobhava; AchAryadEvOBHava; AthidhidEvOBHava”. In simple words it means pray your mother, pray your father, pray your guru, and pray your guest.

In Hindu religion, mother is equated to God. Mother is given the top most respect and she is the outward appearance or phenomenon, form, shape, figure of God. Mothers’ in India is venerated because of her capability of giving life, her war-like fertility, her sacrifice, her Devi like form to protect her child, her devoted care and unquestionable love. The planet Earth is called Budevi meaning mother earth or in other word “Maa”. The country itself is called “Bharat maatha” meaning mother India. The entire topography of the country is feminine dominant right from trees, river, mountain, stream, all the way to language. I love the fact that mothers and women in general are given such prominence in India and I hope modernization and westernized lifestyle will not change this magnificent and rich tradition of India.

I love my mother and she means the world to me. If you ask me if I consider my mother God, I would say “YES “in a blink. I don’t even have to think about it even for a split second. I simply base my answer on the fact that I have the utmost deference for her and by equating her to God, I’m pouring my immense respect know to human kind. I think whoever (whether a mom, step mom, adopted moms, dad, uncle, aunty or even a mentor to name a few) forfeit their personal needs to see their beloved ones grow, nurture and protect them, be there in the times of need, mentor them to have a better life is no less than God. I hope every one of us is blessed enough to have someone in our life worthy of God status (someone like a mother, a father, spouse, sibling, grand parents, teacher or a friend to name some). If you don’t have God in your life then be one to someone. We all need God : -)

The two gems of my life

Parenting, believe me, is truly the most gratifying and at the same time trickiest job in the world. It is rewarding in so many spectrum right from those priceless smile on your baby’s face when he/she sees you, to those adorable eyes looking at you where ever you go, all the way to their cute little milestones, to those innumerable kisses and hugs. There are no words to describe how pure and serene it is to be a parent.

I’m a mother of two; a girl aged 4 and a boy aged 2. I have been asked many times by single child parents’ on how I am able handle two kids. Raising one child in itself is beyond the words of challenging. Does having another child makes matter worst? I wish the answer to it was as simple as “yes” or “no”. But there is so more depth to it. I don’t want to embellish hopeful second time parents by saying it’s absolutely blissful nor startle them by all the intricacy of raising two children. So I thought of writing a small blog on how it is to have two kids. Let me start with pros and cons of having two kids rather than one.

Pros

• The elder child will always have a company to him/her for life and vice versa. Isn’t it wonderful to give your child a sibling who will be there for each other beside you? I feel it’s a perfect gift one can give to their own child.

• Siblings play together that usually means some spare time to parents. My kids play by themselves in their toy room there by giving me some time to write blog for example.

• The younger child seems to learn much faster from his/her sibling. So as a parent I ended spending less time coaching the second child.

Cons:

• Where there are two, there tends to be fight. Siblings fight over toys, food, cloths, books and parents. O yes!!! I said parents.

• Messy home. May it is possible to keep home sparkly clean but definitely not in my case. I feel there are two tornadoes in my home. It’s hard to keep up to their speed.

• Say adios to your hour glass figure unless you workout and be on a proper diet. It is very hard to get rid of baby fat gained from pregnancy but it’s feasible.

Whatever the reasons may be, (economic, marriage instability, space, busy lifestyle, finance, health, career to name some) weather to go for a second child is purely personal and it should be left to the parents to decide what is best for them. As for me, I always wanted two children of my own and it’s been wonderful so far.